williams



(No Model.)

L. N..]). WILLIAMS. 'MANUFAGTURE 0F STOCKINGS.

No. 502,941. Patented Aug. 8,1893.

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LOUIS N. D. WILLIAMS, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO ROBERT W. soon, on SAME PLACE.

MAN u FACTU RE OF STOCKINGS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters latent No. 502,941, dated August 8, 1893. Application filed December 19, 1892. Serial No. 455,637. No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LOUIS N. D. WILLIAMS, acitizen of the United States, and a resident of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have invented certain Improvementsin the Manufacture of Stockings, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to facilitate the manufacture of stockings havin glon g legs and seamless feet, that is to say, feet'having the toe and heel portions shaped by narrowing and Widening in what are known as seamless machines. This object I attain by making the leg portion of the stocking upon an ordinary circular machine intended for the production of plain tubular web, and after the proper length of tube has been produced upon the needles ofthe cylinder of said machine, removing the cylinder, with the work upon it, and applying the same to another machine of the seamless type by which the foot portion of the stocking, with its seamless heel and toe pocket, isproduced, or, if desired, the operations may be reversed, that is to say, the cylinder of the seamless machine, after having had forined upon it the foot with its seamless toe and heel pockets, can be removed from the machine and applied to an ordinary circular machine by which the leg tube is knitted. By this'means the leg tube can be knitted at a much more rapid rate than tubular web can be produced on the seamless machine such as forms the foot with its heel and toe pockets, for the circular machine which makes the leg may have a number of feeders, so as to produce a number of courses of stitches for each rotation, whereas the seamless machine upon which the foot is produced is limited to a single feeder, at least during that part of the time whenthe toe and heel pocket is being formed; moreover, stripes, fancy stitches, or reinforced portions can be produced in the leg tube of the stocking by reason of thenumber of feeders employed in the circular machine upon which said leg tube is produced and because of the facility for introducing, reinforcing or splicing threads in said machine.

In the accompanying drawingsz Figure 1, represents a sectional view of the cylinder of a circular knitting machine with the leg tube a formed thereon; and Fig. 2, is a similar view of the same cylinder, after the foot tube b with its seamless heel'pocket d and toe pocket fhas been formed upon it.

In practice a series of automatic seamless machines for making the foot portions with their heels and toes may be located adjacent to one or more power driven circular machines upon which the leg tubes are to be produced, and, as soon as the proper length of tube is finished in one of said circular machines, the cylinder is removed, either by the same operator who attends to the seamless machines, or by a special operator, and placed in position for ready insertion into one of the seamless machines as soon as the completion of the foot therein has been effected and the web has been cast 0E, the cylinder being removed from the seamless machine and inserted in the circular machine. 7

By means of my invention the leg portions of the stockings can be made of single or inferior strands or yarns and of any degree of tightness or slackness and the foot can be of double or heavier strands or yarns and of a degree of slackness or tightness different from that of the leg.

I am aware that it has been proposed to form a leg tube for a stocking upon one machine and after the completion of the tube to cast it off of the needles of said machine and apply the loops around the end of the tube to the needles of another machine upon which the foot of the stocking is to be formed, but my invention is distinct from thisin that there is no casting off of the tube from one machine or running of the stitches of the same onto the needles of another machine, the transfer being effected by transferring the cylinder with the work upon it, an operation which, it is manifest, can be performed in much less time and with much less expenditure of labor than the plan above referred to. Moreover, a leg tube having a series of threads forming a series of courses of stitches ineach round cannot be readily transferred onto the needles of a separate machine for forming the foot because such leg tube would not present a continuous course of stitches around the end for application to the needles of such by transferring the cylinder of one machine,

seamless machine. with the partially formed stocking upon it, to

Having thus described my invention, I the other machine for the completion of the claim and desire to secure by Letters Pat- I stocking, substantially as specified. [5

5 ent-- In testimony whereof I have signed my The mode herein described of making stockname to this specification in the presence of ings having feet with seamless heel and toe two subscribing witnesses.

portions, said mode consisting in forming the LOUIS N. D. WILLIAMS. leg tube upon an ordinary circular machine Witnesses: 10 and the foot portion with its seamless heel and FRANK E. BECHTOLD,

toe pockets upon a circular seamless machine, JOSEPH H. KLEIN. 

